Jorin made his way across the stone ruins, feet mechanically moving under him from brick to brick, periodically pushing off a broken wall beneath him to prevent tripping. He wondered why he always had to go so far into the ruins just to harvest the moss that looked so similar to what grew on the outside ruin walls, if a bit greener. This didn't stop his enjoyment though, the wind pushing against his cheeks as he looked around, eyes darting from wall to wall, some larger than others.
As Jorin arrives at the location of the buckets, he notices something odd. A brick in the wall closest to the buckets is gone, directly in the middle of the wall. He knows that it was there yesterday, what could have removed it within the past 12 hours? Jorin makes his way over to the brick apprehensively, walking on the very tips of his toes.
"What am I scared of? Nothing ever happens around here" Jorin states out loud, almost to give will to the world around him that nothing is going to happen.
Jorin looks into the rectangle shaped hole from a few paces away, but he can't seem to make anything out. It's pitch black, as if the world was removed from that very spot. Jorin has courage bubble up in his chest as he gets closer and closer to the wall, until he can finally push his face directly up to the spot. Looking inside, his eyes see only the darkness of nothing. But he keeps staring, and he starts to make out shapes. Two rectangular boxes, a large wall filled with....even smaller rectangles. Wait, those are chairs! And books! A tiny room inside of a wall with just two chairs and books? The chairs look intricately made, with red cushions and backs, the wood is carved unlike anything Jorin has ever seen. I bet it took someone hundreds of hours per chair he thinks.
Jorin decides to break the walls down brick by brick. Placing his hands on the bottom brick, and pulling it out below him. Thankfully it comes apart quite easily, if a bit slowly. By the time Jorin has a hole he can crawl into, his hands are tinted green and covered in bits of moss. Ugh, that's going to take a while to get out. Jorin steps into the seemingly pristine, if a bit dusty room, and checks his surroundings. The room is the same size as he remembers, but the floor is made of wood. Real, not rotten wood! He taps his feet on it, rubs his hands against it, leaving a green hand-shaped mark on it. Wow, I can't believe this is actual wood, what kind of root was this made of to last this long? he wonders.
Jorin pulls out a random book from the wall, dusts it off, then makes his way over to the chair, sitting down. He sinks into bottom cushion, perfectly molded to his legs and bottom, then leans back to feel the cushion bend perfectly around his back and shoulders, as if the chair was made for him. "Ahhh, this is nice" he says as looks to read the title of the book. "Those That Bear It by Thyra, what an odd name for a book. Weird author too, definitely not from here. Who's Thyra?" Jorin opens the first page, an incomprehensible symbol is embedded above the title, one that looks both familiar and far away, ever changing. It's not that he doesn't know how to read, Jorin is perfectly literate for where he comes from, sure he probably can't read royal books, but why would he need to? His family only has a few books, and they're all about moss farming. Jorin knows the letters in this book, but for some reason he can't understand any of the words. What is this, a book for royalty?
Jorin closes the book, only to freeze halfway through. There's someone sitting in the chair next to me. Jorin's breathing intensifies as his mind races, trying to comprehend when the somewhat feminine figure got there. THERE'S SOMEONE SITTING NEXT TO ME, he closes the book all the way, then sits it down in the table between them as slow as he can. He manages to look at the figure slowly, wanting to see if his is friend or foe. Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me, I'm sorry for entering your....space.
The being is a woman, around as tall as his father, and just as muscular. Lithe strips of muscle bulge from a form fitting tunic, a life of adventure will do that to you. She wears a cape around her shoulders, with holes for her arms that allow for the cape to be tightened to her body across her chest. Leather straps of all kinds are bound to her body in many places, some with metal claps, some with leather. They hold everything from a dagger, a sword, to glass vials filled with colored liquids, some bubbling and fizzing. Jorin directs his eyes upwards, at the person's, no, being's face. Her eyes are like an ever-changing expanse of swirling colors, green, red, blue, and a cloudy white. Her hair is bushy, not like when real hair gets bushy, but literally, it looks almost like a green piece of brush going down her cape, switching back and forth between green brush and brown shrubbery.
"H-h-Hello M-miss....Miss, is there something I-I've done to d-disturb you?" Jorin chokes out with tears starting to well in the corners of his eyes.
"Calm yourself, Child. Be not afraid. If anything, I'm disturbing you. How is it that you found yourself here?" The dull green of her eyes had seemingly taken over, muting but not eliminating the other colors swishing around her pupils.
An aura of authority and soothing calmness seemed to seep from her, grounding Jorin like he had just spotted civilization after a months long voyage at sea. "Ma'am, I'm unsure of what your asking exactly. I'm here because I spotted a hole in the wall next to our mist buckets, made the hole larger and crawled in. Do you know where we are?"
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"I couldn't tell you where we are, but what made you decide crawling into a hole in the wall in these ruins, especially some so pristinely kept for their age? That's dangerous, don't you know?" The being across from him seemed to be curiously prodding him with questions.
Is this a trap? A riddle designed to keep me here until I'm used somehow? I'm going to play along for now. "My parents tell me that there's dangerous things in the Ruins, but only if you travel too deep. This is a spot me and my father harvest, not deep enough to be dangerous, so I figured it would be fine. I've never had any issue while exploring anywhere my father lets me. Can I leave now? I need to be getting back to him soon."
"So you like exploring, do you? Is it really exploring if you don't know where you're going? Some would call that wandering, a much more dangerous endeavor. You must not be a afraid of danger then, considering you wandered in here, picked a book out like it was yours, then decided to have a conversation with the person you've never seen before in your life. No matter, I think I've decided." The being moved out of her seat faster than he'd ever seen something move before, but it was a comprehensible speed. Like it was meant to be read. She appeared at the hole, now big enough to walk through. Her cloak had a signature on it, a stamped circular formation of swirling colors making a view of a lush green expanse. She looked back at Jorin, staring into his eyes. "Jorin, it was nice speaking with you. You can keep the book. Read it, think about it.". Just like that, she walked outside, turned the corner and was seemingly gone.
Jorin grabbed the book off the table and darted outside, looking around to see if he was finally alone. Sweating bullets, he checked behind himself. The wall was there, perfectly build again. No missing brick, no hole, no miniature reading room. Wait, what about the book! Jorin's eyes and neck swooped downward, still seeing "Those Who Bear It" in his hands, even clean of all moss residue. Air escaped his lungs in a breath of excitement, fear, and apprehension. So it was real, I didn't just dream that. I should keep this book in my pack, I would never be allowed alone if I told mom or dad what happened today
Jorin quickly gathered the buckets, tied them against his pack as usual, then made for the meeting point as fast as possible. He had to be late after talking all that time to talk to that...lady. He pushed himself faster than normal, his legs and core burning with that ever-present pain, letting him know his body was working for this speed. He both enjoyed and loathed it, the feeling of movement. It was as if it fueled him, the burn both a challenge and a victory.
As he arrived back at the ruin outskirts, Jorin noticed that his father was not there. Weird, he should be back by now. I will wait for him a little longer before-
"Jorin! Since when do you get back quicker than your old man? I swear I have to wait for you every time. Something happen to make you rush back so quick?" His father marched towards him with 3 buckets filled with water, and the charger in his front pocket.
"No, Father, I seemed to have let time get ahead of me, I thought I was gone longer. Everything is alright."
"Lets get to harvesting, son" Both Garrick and Jorin grabbed scrapers, son following father deeper into the ruins until Garrick decided a spot was good enough. The scrapers were adjusted to be around 1/4 of a pinkie finger off from the wall, then pushed against them, going up and down or travelling the sides, slicing off a majority of the moss while leaving a little for it to keep growing.
Two harvested moss walls and 3 buckets filled later, Jorin and his father was ready to head back. Just before leaving, Jorin placed the 3 mist buckets an equal distance away from each other between the two walls, one at a time. Father sure is strong to be able to carry all these back from the stream Jorin thought.
"Alright Father, they're ready to be charged! I can try first, right!?" Jorin hoped and hoped that Mana would finally be willed through his hands, but deep down he pessimistically believed it wouldn't be today.
"Sure son." Garrick said as he handed the charger to Jorin.
Jorin held the charger against the buckets with a purposeful resolve in his eyes. He tried to think about Mana travelling from his heart to his hands and into the charger, but nothing happened. "ugh....Of course. You can take care of it again, Dad. Thank you for letting me try."
"Its okay, Son. It's not expected of you to charge these until you get your Innate Trait, you know that. You will do it someday." Garrick patted his son's back, then took the charger from Jorin. Holding the charger up against the bucket, Garrick's palm began to glow white, which travelled into the charger as, glowing blue, with the very tip of the glowing a bright red, singeing a black circular formation into the bucket that leaked red at the edges. Garrick soon did this to all the buckets, and by the time he was done and back to Jorin, all buckets were now releasing a soft light mist. This breathed life into the moss around, jumpstarting the growing process. By the time Jorin and Garrick would be back tomorrow, the moss would be 1/2 grown back, ready to harvest in another few weeks.
"Alright Jorin, ready to head back?" Garrick picked up two of the moss filled buckets, tying them to each side of his hips to balance them out. Making even more of an imprint in the mossy stone and dirt as he walked to to Jorin.
"Yes Father, lets go back and see Mother. If I'm lucky, maybe even Marek will be over today and we can explore together after we finish the moss processing!" Jorin hoped his only friend would be over. Marek's parents also harvested moss, but they always get done early because they've lived here their whole life, traits focused on moss production and processing.
Jorin heaved one of the moss filled buckets up and onto his chest, tying the bucket right in front of his core so it leaned close to his center of mass. The bucket was heavy, but he was used to one bucket. One day I'll do all three, so father doesn't have to even do carry one! he thought.
And with that, Jorin started walking back to their home with Garrick.